Bombardier’s CSeries plane, which is now in the final stages before first flight due by end of June, features a new type of engine that is touted as being four times quieter than jets in service today.

“The CS100 is a whisper jet that couldn’t have been envisioned when the tripartite agreement was signed and written 30 years ago,” Deluce said at Wednesday’s news conference, referring to the agreement that bans jets at the island airport.

Porter has placed a conditional order, contingent on getting governments and the port authority to amend the rules to permit the airline to fly the bigger CSeries planes.

When Bombardier first began developing the CSeries aircraft, designed to seat between 100 and 149 passengers, it wanted to make it a game changer, completed with a new engine, with a better fuel burn and fewer emissions.

The company went to Pratt and Whitney which has developed geared turbo-fan engine technology, considered a breakthrough in the aerospace industry.

This engine, known as the PurePower PW1500G, will be the first to come to market with the CSeries in 2014. Other versions of the engine have been chosen by other airplane manufacturers including Airbus for its 320neo jet and Mitsubishi for its regional jet that are in development.

The design is a wholesale change in engine architecture, said Mary Ellen Jones, Pratt and Whitney’s vice-president of global customer sales.

Traditionally, in a jet engine, the fan and the turbine are connected. They spin and rotate at the same speed, creating bypass air that runs around the engine, delivering most of the thrust.

With Pratt and Whitney’s geared technology, the fan is larger and can move at a different speed than the turbine. The fan moves at slower speed, while the turbine moves three times faster, generating more bypass air.

“The larger fan makes it quieter, and if you have more air coming through the fan, and bypassing the core, that’s quieter,” she said. “The turbine can rotate more quickly, offering better fuel performance.”

Rob Dewar, Bombardier’s vice-president and general manager of the CSeries, said the noise reduction also comes in part from the aircraft design that uses lighter composite materials with more aerodynamic wings.

Dewar said noise tests show the CSeries jet would be comparable to Bombardier’s Q400 turboprops, which make up Porter’s current fleet.

Both Bombardier and Porter are arguing that the CSeries plane’s fuel efficiency and lower emissions make it ideal for an urban airport like Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport.

Lufthansa’s Swiss International Air Lines has placed a firm order for CSeries jets that are expected to fly from London’s city airport in east London to cities in Zurich, Geneva and Basel.

Similarly, Malmo Aviation has announced plans to use the CS jets out of the city airport in Stockholm, Sweden.

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